Author: Henry Barnard

I am a voracious reader and also enjoy writing. I often have a very different point of view than the popular one. I do see value in debate, and thought it might add to the public debate on controversial issues if I were to express my contrarian opinions. I also started keeping my poems recently (I've written little pieces my whole adult life but never kept any); and I've been a photographer now for over 25 years. So I will be adding an occasional poem and hopefully interesting photograph to the blog along the way, just to spice things up.

“Truth in Boxing”

Have you ever noticed that when you open a box of breakfast cereal and look inside, a third to up to half of the box is actually empty, that is, nothing but air? What is actually happening here? Clearly the producers are telling you that you are buying a larger amount when you view the size of the box itself from the outside compared to the amount of cereal in the box that you actually get.

This is no doubt good for the producer because, in selling you less product than you think you are buying, they are reducing their cost than if the box were full. On the other hand, it is clearly bad for the consumer, and represents arguably deceptive and misleading selling.

There was a phase in consumer-protection history when we had a campaign called “truth in advertising” because the permitted ads were so deceptive and misleading. Is it time for something called “truth in boxing”? Or do you want to continue to pay for air when you think you are buying breakfast cereal?

Virus Overreaction

Virus Overreaction

The two groups that are in danger with this virus are people over than, say, 65. and people with other serious health conditions. Those two groups should remain isolated and stay at home, but everyone else should go back to work and back to a normal life style, in my opinion, because, like with the flu, the virus doesn’t pose a serious lethal threat to them, and we all do need a functioning economy or we are looking at a repeat of the 1930s and a real economic collapse.

A Different View

Impeachment Farce

Impeachment farce comes to its thankful end. You don’t impeach someone who is no longer in office. And what happened at the Capitol was all about a fraudulent election. The people were showing their ire about the fraud. Can you blame them? It would have been shameful had they not demonstrated by invading that building. American elections are supposed to be honest and above board. This one stunk to high heavens — and look what we are left with in the White House.

Circus Comes to Town

Other Worlds

Astronomers believe that, of all the stars one can see in the clear night sky, well over half of them are not one star but 2 or more stars. We see these multiple stars as one star because they are so far away that they blur together or merge in our view of them.

It is also becoming increasingly clear that it is not at all uncommon for any star to have planets and their own solar system circling them, just like our own solar system circles our sun.

While we live in a solar system with only one star, there must be many solar systems that are under the influence and light of multiple stars, given that many seemingly single stars are actually multiple stars.

This raises the interesting idea that the planets in situations where there are multiple stars close together may not experience the day/night cycle that we experience because when these planets rotate they may always be facing sunlight, i.e., there is another paired star on the “nighttime” side.

Just imagine what that means. Such a world would never have our night, so inhabitants would never ever see stars. They would not know of the existence of the stars in the universe, and therefore would not have anything like a true understanding of the real universe. They would live in a bubble, in a world in effect encapsulated by sunlight, never ever able to see beyond that sunlight.

Another impact of not having the experience of ever having a night, that is, of always existing in daylight, is that their sleep/rest cycles would not be modulated, as ours is, by the day/night rhythm. So what would induce the need to rest/sleep in such a world where there was perpetual daylight? Or perhaps our type of sleep, ushered in by the darkness of night, would not exist there as well — the inhabitants of such a world might not experience our type of sleep at all. Our world is modulated by intense activity during daylight hours, followed by sleep/rest during the night, but without a night, their world might be this steady state of low-grade activity all the time, which might eliminate any need for sleep/rest.

A Little Joy

Circus Comes to Town

Impeachment trial against Trump, who has already left office, another example of Congress as circus. Blaming him for a popular demonstration against a fraudulent election means that Congress makes such demonstrations now illegal — i.e., you are not allowed to protest what your government does anymore, no matter how asinine its actions may be. Kind of in line with the new censorship. The new normal is a citizen with his mouth taped shut and his hands in handcuffs behind his back — that’s good citizenship today. The Dems think their impeachment-trial circus is winning them support, but very much the opposite is true because the half of the country that are Trump-supporters are going to react very bitterly to this political theatre and hijinks. So expect the divide of the country to just get wider and more vitriolic because of it.

Looking forward to the day Trump either starts his own social-media platform or joins Gab to start a steady stream of public rebuttals. Really do need a strong voice critical of this new leftist regime in Washington — their ideological policies are so completely lunie. Trump has at least half the country supporting him — probably much more if the election had been at all honest. So he has a “bully pulpit,” even if no longer the prez.

Distorted Reality